Published By: Rohit Chatterjee

BGT: Did India Win the Last Time When It Lost 4 Under 50 Against the Aussies? Check-out Here

As of now, the only batter India can rely on is Rishabh Pant, who is India’s best option for a fightback

India is off to a horrible start in the first Test match of the 2024/25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The Perth crowd has already witnessed the dismissal of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, and KL Rahul, with the wickets falling at 5/1, 14/2, 32/3, and 47/4.

Given India’s recent slump in Test cricket, especially the loss against New Zealand at home, morning incidents at Perth don’t surprise or shock the Indian fans, as expectations have been lower from the squad.

However, the fall of wickets and scoreline brings back a memory from the 2023 Border-Gavaskar Trophy series—the last time India lost four wickets before scoring 50 runs while batting first.

Infliction of pain in Indore

We go back to March 1, 2023, when the third Test of the 2023 Border-Gavaskar Trophy was played in Indore. India had already won the first two matches, but it was crucial for them to win or draw another.

In the first innings, India took the crease, but dismissals were in quick succession as Rohit Sharma departed with 12 runs, Shubman Gill followed by scoring 21, Cheteshwar Pujara added only one run, and Kohli hit 22—four wickets gone within 44 runs.

No show from the middle order

The middle order also faltered, with Ravindra Jadeja scoring four, Shreyas Iyer getting a duck, and Srikar Bharat and Axar Patel scoring 12 runs, respectively.

In the first innings, the entire Indian line-up was bundled for 109 runs.

Fall of wickets in order

Overall, the fall of wickets of the Indian squad in the first innings was in this order: 1-27 (Rohit Sharma, 5.6 overs), 2-34 (Shubman Gill, 7.2 overs), 3-36 (Cheteshwar Pujara, 8.2 overs), 4-44 (Ravindra Jadeja, 10.5 overs), 5-45 (Shreyas Iyer, 11.2 overs), 6-70 (Virat Kohli, 21.4 overs), 7-82 (Srikar Bharat, 24.5 overs), 8-88 (Ravichandran Ashwin, 28.3 overs), 9-108 (Umesh Yadav, 32.2 overs), 10-109 (Mohammed Siraj, 33.2 overs).

Not enough to defend

While Australia’s first innings wasn’t great either, as they could only manage 197 runs, the team managed to take a decent lead. In the second innings, redemption was expected, but India couldn’t do much better, adding only 163 runs. The only decent shows were by Cheteshwar Pujara, who scored 59 runs off 142 balls, whereas Shreyas Iyer added 26—both of them had failed poorly in the first innings.

In the second innings, given the score wasn’t enough to be defended, Australia quickly added the required 78, losing only Usman Khawaja’s wicket, and won the game by nine wickets.

By the time we have reached the conclusion of this article, India has lost another wicket and is presently at 73/6 with Rishabh Pant and debutant Nitish Kumar Reddy at the crease. It will be interesting to see if India’s lower order can provide some sense of stability. Given how things are going at present, fans are wondering whether the team can go past 120.